The Economy

THE ECONOMY -- (House of Representatives - December 07, 2005)

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for yielding.

I want to reiterate what our colleague from Georgia has said. We are grateful to you for the leadership you have provided in these Special Orders in trying to get the truth out about the issues. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem to think that by saying things that are not true, they can make them true. I am glad that we have an opportunity to correct the record.

Mr. Speaker, this past Monday, I had the great honor and privilege to host President George W. Bush in North Carolina's 5th Congressional District. The President came to discuss our country's impressive economic growth at the John Deere-Hitachi manufacturing plant in Kernersville.

It is an honor to have many flourishing companies like Deere-Hitachi in the 5th District. I am proud of this facility for being a model of how U.S. manufacturing companies can compete successfully in the global economy. Employment at Deere-Hitachi recently doubled in size to over 750 direct employees. These are all good, high-skilled, well-paid jobs.

A portion of Deere-Hitachi's growth has been fueled by the localization of models that were formerly produced in Asia to Kernersville, North Carolina. This has had a tremendously positive impact on our local economy.

Thus, I am sure you can imagine how disturbed I was to hear that the political hacks over at the Democratic National Committee tried to twist the President's visit to this highly successful plant into something negative. The DNC chairman even had the audacity to ask, ``Where are North Carolina's manufacturing jobs?'' Shame on the Democratic National Committee for insulting North Carolina's thousands of highly skilled manufacturing workers who are driving our national economy.

The DNC's remarks were a slap in the face to many hardworking men and women who work for successful North Carolina manufacturing companies, manufacturers like Dell, Sara Lee, American Emergency Vehicles, Vaughn-Bassett Furniture, Reynolds American, Weyerhauser, and so many more that I cannot begin to name them all. We are making great strides and putting people to work, and all the Democrats want to do is attack us.

American workers are the best in the world. If we give our workers a level playing field and get the Federal Government off their back by cutting taxes and regulations, then the American worker can compete with and outperform anyone anywhere.

As you know, our country has had to endure some trying times during the past 5 years, many of which were beyond our control. We have gone through a recession that began in the previous administration, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many terrible natural disasters and more. However, we have persevered and we are prospering.

You have heard many facts already presented by my colleague from Georgia, and you will hear many more, but the fact that we made it through these crises and have a booming economy is a real testament to the strength and diversity of the U.S. economy. And it is a testament to the hard work and ingenuity of the American worker.

We all have a lot to be grateful to our President for. Under his watch, our economy is flourishing and getting stronger by the day. In a report issued last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, our economy created 215,000 new jobs during the month of November. Over 4.4 million jobs have been created since May 2003, as has already been stated.

This latest jobs report is yet another indicator that our economy is thriving. More Americans are working than ever before in the Nation's history. Unemployment is down to 5 percent, which is lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This is due to the hard work of the American people and sound Republican policies such as lower taxes, legal reform and less government influence in the lives of our Nation's entrepreneurs and small business owners.

These Republican policies are working. We are cutting taxes and letting people keep their hard-earned money, which they can invest back into our economy if they choose. Individual families know best how to spend their hard-earned money, not the Federal Government.

In addition to our Nation's job growth, our U.S. economy is showing other signs of expansion. The U.S. gross domestic product growth of 4.3 percent is at its fastest pace since 2004. The GDP growth in the third quarter is one full point above the 3.3 percent rate.

Further, our country is at the lowest rate of core inflation in more than 2 years. The increase in the rate of inflation was lower than initial expectations with the price index of consumer spending rising 4.2 percent, compared with initial estimates of 3.7 percent.

In addition, the sales of new single family homes should be the largest 1 month gain in 12 years. Sales of new single family homes increased by 13 percent in October and pushed sales to an all-time high of 1.2 million units.

Again, I am proud of President Bush's leadership and agenda for a strong economy. My colleagues and I have a duty to keep this economic momentum going by making tax relief permanent and working against the Democratic leadership's efforts to raise taxes. Look for the Democrats to continue their tired political attacks on the Republicans' effective economic policies, but do not

hold your breath for them to come up with good ideas. Their only alternative is to tax, tax, and tax some more.

As we work to pass the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005, I hope our Democratic colleagues will join us in supporting this common-sense bill. The future of America's economic prosperity is at stake.

I look forward to working with President Bush and the rest of my colleagues in Congress to make tax relief permanent, exercise spending restraint and cut the Federal deficit in half by 2009.

Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for her leadership in letting us present the facts to the American people, not the stories that are being told by our Democratic colleagues.

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